1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for preventing contamination of a syringe used for delivering materials to surfaces so as to permit subsequent reuse of the syringe without cross contamination. More particularly, the present invention relates to protective coverings and methods for preventing contamination of dental syringes.
2. Background Art
Applying materials through syringes to teeth or mouth surfaces is an important process in common dental procedures. Generally, the syringes are used to express materials such as fillings, dental composites, bonding agents, or the like onto teeth surfaces.
During this process, the syringe can become contaminated as it comes into contact with a patient's mouth and/or from gloves worn by a practitioner. Often, not all of the material is used on a single patient. Because such materials are expensive, a common practice is to attempt to disinfect the syringe by wiping it down so it can be re-used. However, such efforts are not always completely effective, which leads to risk of cross contamination of infectious disease from one patient to another, if proper procedure is not followed by the practitioner.
Even when effective, such disinfecting procedures are time consuming. It would thus be preferable to simply discard the syringe after each use. However, the cost of materials makes this prohibitive from a cost point of view.
Small unit dose cartridges have been devised, but they are so small that they are very difficult to handle and control in the oral cavity with any real precision. Further, even the material in these cartridges is often not used entirely on a single patient. Thus, to date, these problems remain largely unsolved.